A few years ago, I produced a report with Marc de Vries on the impact of the (then proposed) free and open data policy for Copernicus (then GMES). We called it GMES and Data: Geese and Golden Eggs as it looked at the trend towards open data and the impact this is expected to have economies and then linked this to the Copernicus Sentinel data. We argued that as the data had been paid for out of public resources, users (taxpayers) should not be asked to pay a second time.…

I start by wishing everyone reading this a Happy New Year! have been rather inactive on this blog, so a first new years’ resolution is to try to write more! In part it is caused by the volume of work which, as we start another new year, it is good to reflect on the successes from last year and the challenges which we face over the next 12 months – which largely stem from the aforementioned success!
In 2018 we have grown from 5 persons to 8 and are now looking for 2 more to join us.…

The GEO plenary was held this year in Kyoto. Two days of side-events were followed by the 2 day plenary session. It was the first for Gilberto Câmara, the new director of the secretariat following the term of Barb Ryan who reached the end of her mandate in June.
We organised a side-event on the Value of Earth Observations which became a joint event with GeoCradle. It was very hard to put together this year due to late designation and difficulty of taking contact with potential speakers.…

As I stated in the previous blog, for the very first years of the EARSC we have copies of minutes and letters coming from ESA which provide a factual reference of EARSC being established. From 1990 on, no such records exist as far as I know and so we shall need to rely on my memory and hopefully the recollections of others to recreate EARSC in the early years. I strongly encourage anyone who is able to add to what I write or correct my faulty memory to comment on the blog. Collectively,…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the meeting in Baveno to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the birth of the Copernicus programme. I wrote about how interesting it was to compare notes and perspectives on what happened at the event 20 years ago.
At the event, it was a particular pleasure to meet Claes Goren Borg who was the EARSC chairman in 1998 and Marcello Ricottilli who was chairman from 2000 to 2003. As a result, we had the 3 chairs from 1991 through to 2003 all together in the meeting!…

At midnight (CET) on 29th March next year, the UK will cease to be a member of the EU. At a stroke, unless there is an agreement beforehand, UK becomes a third party to the EU, and the whole legal basis of the relationship with UK will change. What will be the implications for the EO services industry?
On the table is a withdrawal agreement (WA) which if agreed will prolong the application of EU law to the UK until midnight on 31st December 2020.…

I wrote about Brexit only once before, immediately after the vote in June 2016. I hoped at that time that the vote could be reversed but could not see the mechanism as to how that possibility could arrive. Now it is possible to see a mechanism through the growing voices for a second vote, but less the wisdom of repeating a vote as, even if some polls show people changing their minds, it is not clear that a decisive result would be the outcome.…

Climate domino.jpg
In this summer of further record-breaking temperatures around the world, of more devastating, deadly fires in Greece, California, Portugal and elsewhere, of extreme floods in India and extreme temperatures in Europe, of drought conditions affecting agriculture in Australia and slashing the yield for potato growers in Belgium, few people can doubt that climate change is happening faster than ever. A recently,…

Last month, I attended the 20th anniversary of the Baveno meeting which established the GMES programme which has now become Copernicus. The Baveno Manifesto was a landmark document put together by representatives of Europe’s space agencies under the guidance of the European Commission. EARSC was there represented by our then chairman Claes Goren Borg. It was great meeting up with so many friends (I shall not say old friends!…

I rarely blog about matters unconnected with EARSC and the EO sector but this one is an exception based on personal views.
I came across this chart recently. It comes from a report looking at intergenerational wealth produced by the UK Resolution Foundation which is chaired by David Willets - former Research Minister who was largely responsible for initiating the strong space investment in the UK (but this is the only connection with the space sector).
intergenerational spending.…

Last Friday, on behalf of EARSC, I signed a Memorandum of Understanding between EARSC and EuroChile Business Foundation. Mr. Vicente Caruz, President of Eurochile signed on their behalf and we are delighted to extend our international co-operation to Chile.
EuroChile is a venture set up by the EU and the government of Chile to promote business co-operation. Through the MoU we expect to be able to offer opportunities for business and technology transfer.…

The EC has published its proposed budgets for the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework Perspective 2021 to 2028 which includes an allocation for “space” of €16b. This will provide continuity for the 2 EC flagships; Galileo and Copernicus.
The main interest from the EO services sector is towards the Copernicus programme and it is great to see that this is assured.…

http://earsc.org/images/1887.pngLast week I have spent a very stimulating 4 days at FIDAE https://www.fidae.cl/en/. The International Air and Space Fair is the foremost aerospace, defence and security exhibition of Latin America, which has become one of the most important business platforms of the region due to its long and successful experience. The fair took place between 3-8 April 2018 in Santiago (Chile) and at the same time,…

We recently attended the kick-off of our new project IDEEO along with all the other projects under the Clusters Go International programme of EASME. It was quite enlightening and very gratifying to see how advanced we are in EARSC compared to other project teams!!
We are in the first stage of a two-stage process. In the first stage, we are funded to develop a joint strategy along with our cluster partners; Pol Mer Bretagne (PMB) and Cluster Lucano di Bioeconomia (CLB).…

Last week, I was extremely pleased to accompany our latest trade mission with 7 European companies to Australia. The goal was to enable meetings between potential partners to work together on EO geospatial services in the context of the Copernicus agreement signed between the EU and Australia. One further partnership was cemented during the week through an MoU between EARSC and CRCSI.…

La_Mancha_plateau_Spain.jpg
(ESA)
Last Monday, along with about 250 others, I attended the EC organised Copernicus for Agriculture workshop http://agriws.eventsite.be/page/82/Home/. It was a very good meeting with a lot of information exchanged on how Copernicus and Sentinel data is being used mainly to support agriculture policy.
It was billed as an industry workshop and at the entrance it was announced as “Copernicus / private sector”.…

I have spent the last week at the Geospatial World Forum (GWF) in Hyderabad. During that time I met many new people and had many illuminating conversations. There was a fantastic gala dinner with inter-continental music (Indian Jazz) and of course a lot of delicious Indian dishes. Overall, a demanding but rewarding trip.
The highlight of the week for us was the signing of an MoU between EARSC and the Association of Geospatial Industries for India (AGI).…

Last Friday I was in Rome at the invitation of the Italian Space Agency ASI. Along with colleagues from the other European Associations Eurospace and SME4Space, I participated to a workshop hosted by ASI to exchange views on the next EU MFF (Multi-Annual Financial Framework). Our equivalent Associations in Italy (ASAS, AIPAS and AIAD) were also present.…

We have all seen over the last 2 years how the EO services sector has been changing. New commercial satellite systems, cloud storage and processing, big data technologies and machine learning or artificial intelligence are all having a huge impact on the business models of EO service providers. Despite these changes, even today 90-95% of the business is for what we call bespoke services ie one product for one customer.…

I am just back from the GEO Plenary in Washington. We had a really good week; several things stand out 😉
Firstly, we were able to take a delegation of 7 companies to participate. Generally, the feedback from those who were there was good and the whole event was noticeably better than in previous years; especially the side events which were much better organised and well-attended. Thank you to the GEO Secretariat for making this possible.
Secondly,…

With the launch last Friday of the latest Sentinel, the range of data and services available from Copernicus increases further. Sentinel 5P will provide data on atmospheric chemistry and promises new products on air quality in the near future.
Copernicus is a wonderful success story for Europe. It is the foremost,…

I had the pleasure last week to make a short presentation to the EU Council Space Working Party. For those lost in the complexities of Brussels and EU governance this is the group which prepares decisions to be taken by the EU Council in all matters pertaining to space in the EU. But do not be confused with the ESA governance which is completely different - except that when the ministers meet together in either ESA council or the EU council,…

This week, containing the public holiday for the Assumption Day, is the quietest of the year in Brussels apart from Xmas/New Year. It also marks the ending of the summer holiday period for many and the start of the coming back to work. But things have not stood still over the summer and two things stand out for me which have each been subject to significant development over the summertime.
Firstly, we have managed to get the ITT issued for the development of eoMALL.…

The EOEP-5 Block 4 Industry Info Day took place on 12 May to present the new opportunities in research application, platforms and market development that will be opened in 2017 under EO Science for Society.
eoMALL procurrement was mentioned for the first time (at 01:35:36).
image001.png
Watch the replay at the following link : http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Watch_live_Industry_Info_Day http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Watch_live_Industry_Info_Day

EARSC partner Marc de Vries recently presented the three existing case studies at a workshop in the Netherlands aimed at informing Dutch provinces of the value of using remote sensing on May 23rd, 2017.

EARSC participated to the 37th ISRSE conference http://isrse37.org/ last 8-12 May in Tshwane, South Africa. Geoff notably joined the plenary panel on Trends in Commercial EO https://confmanage.eventsair.com/QuickEventWebsitePortal/isrse-37/conference-site/Agenda/AgendaItemDetail?id=0a714abb-221d-196e-4115-39dbbce04dff on May 12st where he exposed the results of the 3 cases analysed during the previous CEVS study.…

This week I am in Pretoria or Tshwane, as it is now called, for the ISRSE 2017 conference. This is the 37th ISRSE which is an impressively long record. In addition to some really interesting papers concerning African space policy, space agencies activities and on climate change impact, two particular points stand out.
Firstly is the ambition coming from the whole continent and being led/orchestrated by the African Union Commission.…

As a committed member of the EO Community, at EARSC we are convinced that the inherent value in satellite data is very high. Indeed, the European policy makers would not have invested €7b in Copernicus if they did not think so also! But is this really true?
Readers may be familiar with the 3 cases which we studied and published last year which showed that this conviction is true!…

Please complete the EARSC industry survey. If you have not already, contact us on info@earsc.org mailto:info@earsc.org.
The EO sector is changing rapidly with vast new data sets becoming available, cloud computing and big-data technology being deployed and many new initiatives being launched. Knowing what is happening in an industry sector is a fundamental need for policy makers taking decisions on new initiatives.…

On Monday night, I had the enormous pleasure to witness the launch of Sentinel-2B, fifth of the Sentinel satellites of the Copernicus http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/ programme, from ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt. I had been selected by ESA together with 100 other social media participants from across Europe and beyond… (28 countries in total were represented) to attend the #Sentinel2Go SocialSpace http://blogs.esa.…

I am delighted to blog that after 27 years of existence, today EARSC has taken its own office for the very first time!!
A few years ago we did rent an office but it was never occupied except for a few times by directors passing through Brussels and never by the executive. We now have a working base where the team will be located every day and which will become our new home. It is an exciting day in what should be an exciting year!…

Last Thursday I was in Valencia at the BDVA Summit 2016. Florin Serban (BDVA/Terrasigna) had organised a session on big data and space which proved very popular. It was standing room only as we presented our views on how access to EO data, and particularly that coming from Copernicus, will change in the next few years.
ESA (Gunther Landgraf), DG GROW (Martina Sindelar),…

I have spent most of last week in St Petersberg at the GEO plenary; it was a very useful meeting. The plenary was well attended (considered to be the best attended that has not been a Ministerial) and a new format with 3 discussion panel sessions rather than sets of statements from the principles made it far more interesting than previous ones I have sat in on!
I was invited to participate to a panel on the Commercial sector engagement with GEO. It was chaired by Steve Ramage,…

I write this blog-post from Kampala where I am attending the African Association for Remote Sensing of the Environment (AARSE) 2016 conference. This biennial conference brings together researchers and stakeholders from across the African continent. It is my first visit to Uganda and in fact my first visit to Africa! It seems incredible that for all the traveling that I have done over the years, I have not put foot on African soil before now.
This year,…

As many of you will know we are studying the possible conditions for establishing a Marketplace Alliance for EO Services (MAEOS). We have just about reached the half-way stage of the work. We have held an extensive consultation with the stakeholders and mapped this to possible functions and architecture. The results are looking good and have helped enormously to clarify the complex landscape in which we are working. We presented the outcome to the EARSC board last Tuesday (4th October).…

I am sure ;-) that most people reading this will be aware of the economic analyses which we have done regarding the benefits being derived by the use of Copernicus Sentinel data? The 3 case reports and a video can be found on our web-site (http://earsc.org/library/ http://earsc.org/library/).
ESA now wish to extend this work to cover more cases and have issued an open tender for this to be carried out to which we are responding.…

As many of you will know, we are currently studying the possibility to establish a Marketplace for EO Services. Many of those responding are very clear that this should be left to market forces and I think we can be clear in return that this will be the case. Others have expressed concerns about compromising the neutrality of EARSC.…

Good news last month as the Copernicus Committee approved the plan for DG GROW to establish a new service under the Copernicus programme. Once implemented, the Data and Information Access Service (CDIAS) will finally give industry easy and efficient access to the Sentinel data and Copernicus information and create a level playing field throughout Europe.
This is something which EARSC has been claiming for some years now on behalf of the European EO services industry.…

I return quicker than expected to the subject of Brexit simply because everything is unfolding at high speed offering insights into what might or might not happen. Politics can sometimes be a waiting game and whilst emotions run high in a couple reflecting a deep sense of betrayal, time heals as they say and I still think this is the likely outcome here. But I am led to reflect further on what that outcome might be?
Today,…

That was quite a shock last Friday! I went to bed on the news that the polls were showing a 4% margin in favour of remain and when I opened the computer in the morning to see the result my first reaction was that it was a hoax! Someone had hacked into the Guardian and changed the headlines.
Then reality sank in and much of the morning was taken up exchanging news / messages with friends and children on what had happened.…

I had a rude awakening this morning!
Francoise had got up early to leave to pick up the grandchildren and drop them off at school. Shortly after leaving (I was still in bed!) she called me to say I should go quickly to move my car as there was a tow-away truck poised to lift it onto their lorry.
I rushed to put on some clothes and raced up the road. There was no problem and I was able to move my car. Fortunately, Francoise had left early and was able to intervene.…

We had a great workshop on Thursday! Organised as a session during the Geospatial World Forum in Rotterdam our goal was to discuss the results of our study into the Economic Benefits of Copernicus Sentinel data http://earsc.org/news/copernicus-sentinels-products-economic-value-study. It was the first (and only?) time that we brought together key persons from each of the 3 cases we have studied and we had a really excellent exchange. We just felt sorry for all those who were not with us!…

A few years ago, I used to keep another blog which I abandoned on which I would sometimes write about experiences of living in Belgium. My thoughts turn again to that blog as I think I have enough material to fill a book! Consequently, I shall include the (occasional?) blog here about some of these experiences.
Not so long ago, the pavement in front of our house and around the corner was extended.…

Several people remarked to me how EARSC was present in strength at the Copernicus Value Chain workshop organised by the European Commission this last week. Indeed, it was a very important meeting for us and the industry and overall, I was very pleased with the outcome.
Industry views were presented by EARSC representatives (from 7 member companies) in each of the 6 sessions; Chetan (vice-chairman) presented in the plenary and others spoke during exchanges.…

What a horrific day yesterday. I am happy to say that we are all OK and that so far I have not heard of anyone we know being caught up in either of the two attacks. I was at home most of the day “in my office”. Like everyone we think of how we are not caught in the atrocities and of those who were. We had been at the airport on Sunday and could have been there yesterday.…

On Tuesday, Monica and I paid a visit to Eumetsat at their invitation. It was a good opportunity to exchange on latest activities, to understand the Eumetsat plans and position regarding Sentinel data and to brief them on and discuss our plans for the Marketplace Alliance.
We learned that Eumetsat now has committed observation missions right through to 2040. This includes Jason which is now a confirmed mission to which Eumetsat contributes.…

Last week, I was invited to present at the Polish Space Sector Forum in Warsaw. The invitation had been initiated by one of the EARSC members (Geosystems Poland) and I was very happy to accept and to present our ideas linked to the creation of the Marketplace Alliance. It was well attended with some 150 people present and most if not all the member companies of the Polish Space Industry Association exhibited.…

Just before Christmas, Google and the UN-FAO announced that they are to collaborate to make geospatial tracking and mapping products more accessible, providing high-technology assistance to countries tackling climate change and much greater capacity to experts developing forest and land-use policies. "For FAO, this is not just a partnership. This is a strategic alliance," said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.…

In May this year, GP Bullhound has published its second report [1] #_ftn1 on the European “unicorns” and comparison with others around the world. A unicorn is a start-up company which has managed to reach $1b in valuation and GP Bullhound is looking particularly at those engaged in internet technology.
The findings are interesting in that they show the gulf between Europe and the US in particular.…

I hope that many of you may already have seen the report we have published concerning the economic benefit of using satellite imagery (SAR) to support the ice services in Finland and Sweden? If you have not, you can find the report on our web-site http://www.earsc.org/; I think it is quite easy to read as we tell the story of how the ice-breakers work during the Baltic winter.…

If you have not already seen it, we have just published our latest survey of the industry. The 2015 survey follows our first one made that 2 years that takes a comprehensive look at the state of the EO services sector in Europe and Canada. The results are very detailed and provide a very effective basis on which we can develop our messages to policy makers concerning their decisions where they impact on the sector.
Probably the strongest message is that the sector is growing strongly.…

I was interested to see that the BBC has announced that the final round of its tender to find a supplier for its weather services will not include the UK Met Office - so ending a 93 Year relationship. In the accompanying statements it is suggested that the competition could be won by - shock-horror - a New Zealand or a Dutch company. The BBS says it is forced to take this action by its charter and new commercial relationships.…

This is by way of a personal subject this time, but is linked because I wrote about Airbnb in a previous post comparing their business model with our sector.
I have just tried to use their services for the first time and am astonished and extremely disappointed to find them not entirely honest in their actions. I am traveling to UK for a long weekend and thought that I would book accommodation through Airbnb. I specifically set my options to have prices in GBP and expected to pay in GBP.…

DigitalGlobe’s decision not to sell its data to clients which are offering map products based on that data for free makes perfect sense; even if the initial market reaction (a sharp fall in the share price) seemed to the contrary. However, logical the move towards free and open data may be, it has a strong impact on the market for satellite data.…

The article with that title in the Economist last week left me thinking about the impact on our sector. The empire concerned is Silicon Valley and the Geeks are those who have made their money in early internet ventures and which now form the main source of new venture-capital funding.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21659745-silicon-valley-should-be-celebrated-its-insularity-risks-backlash-empire-geeks http://www.economist.…

In the last month, 2 of the 5 commercial satellite operators in Europe have changed ownership; Deimos Imaging was acquired by Urthecast (Canada) and yesterday Blackbridge announced that the business which formerly traded as Rapideye would be sold to PlanetLabs (US). Both these deals are “industrial” or strategic, meaning it is not just a question of changing financial ownership. What does this mean?
After these deals,…

Alongside the recent EARSC AGM, we organised a workshop to develop a discussion between industry and the EEE’s (European Entrusted Entities) on how we can work effectively together on the Copernicus Services. The EEE’s are those organisations which will have delegated authority from the European Commission to deliver the Copernicus Services. Basically this gives them the responsibility to manage and spend public funds; something which it is very hard for a private company to be able to do.…

Last week we held the EARSC AGM and organised several events around it. It was a pretty intensive 2 days - as were the weeks leading up to it - but we had some great discussions and there is a lot to write about! I am not going to attempt to cover everything in one go so watch out over the next week(s) for further articles and news.
The evening before the AGM we held a workshop where I presented the first results coming from our 2015 industry survey.…

We have been claiming for some time that it is essential to develop a formal dialogue between the industry and key decision makers; particularly those in the European Commission but also with ESA and Member States. Up to now, industry views have only been provided through specific meetings, corridor talk and only in an informal fashion.
Finally,…

Since I last wrote, one month ago, I have traveled to Japan with a group of EARSC member companies to explore co-operation with Japanese companies. A series of B2B meetings were organised with the support of the EU-Japan centre for industrial co-operation covering all aspects of space technology. I was pleased that EARSC could support this initiative as it has been a goal both to help companies develop new export business and to organise a first EARSC trade mission.…

The EP held a stakeholder meeting on Wednesday to gather views on the High Resolution directive which the EC has proposed. The EP rapporteurs had called the meeting to get a better understanding of what the directive would mean for the industry.
I guess most people are aware but the EC looks to introduce legislation to regulate the internal market for the dissemination of high resolution imagery in Europe.…

Last Tuesday I was at a workshop on GEO in Washington. It was billed as A Roundtable Discussion on Advancements in Information Technology and the Next Ten Years of the Global Earth Observation System of System, but the main objective was to discuss the private sector participation in GEOSS.
Despite this, the majority of attendees were public sector representatives and, without counting,…

Last Monday, I was at the information (half) day organised by ECMWF regarding the procurement of the atmosphere and climate services for Copernicus. I wish to thank them for organising this event and making the effort to promote and explain the procurement process.
Most will be aware that at EARSC, we have been promoting the necessity to involve industry as much as possible in the supply chain for the services. Today,…

For the last 2 days I have been at the annual space policy conference in Brussels. As usual it has proven to be a very useful event to gather the thoughts of the political influencers and deciders but also to meet with so many friends in the space and Brussels communities. Several messages emerge for me which I wish to capture and share.
Firstly,…

In our last industry survey in 2013, we found that around 65% of the European EO service companies were micro-enterprises ie employing less than 10 persons and that 95% were SME’s employing less than 50 persons. We found this a very interesting result and use it to argue that the sector is quite young and fragmented.
But looking recently at Europe-wide figures, maybe the sector is not so un-characteristic after all.…

How often have we (the older generation of which I am definitely part – a baby boomer) been accused of spending our children’s heritage; of using all the resources and polluting the earth on which we live? It seems to be a quite regular refrain but let us put it into perspective. I came across this delicious piece the other day written by Dennis Gartman and circulated by John Mauldin.
“Checking out at the store,…

A few days ago the European Commission (DG-RTD) has launched a new instrument called Fast Track to Innovation (FTI). The pilot initiative will promote innovation by reducing the time it takes to bring innovative ideas to market. It has a budget of €200 million (€100m in 2015), it is cross-sectorial and can be applied to any technology development with TRL >6. The call is always open with 3 cut-off points in 2015 for reviewing proposals which have been submitted.…

Last Wednesday (20th) we held our 2nd workshop looking at the question of certification for the EO services industry. At the 1st workshop in April 2013, we had agreed to take two steps:
To publish a document which gives a template for products specifications which any EO service provider or their customer can use.
To trial a low-cost scheme whereby companies can certify their management systems. The EARSC scheme would complement a more stringent ISO9001 certification.
As a result,…

I was reading the other day about the how some of the new business models which are growing around the internet and it led me to think about the comparison with changes in the EO services sector. In a very general way, we are seeing low-cost businesses competing with full-priced, higher-performance ones and we are seeing individuals and businesses using existing, paid-for assets to supply their customers at marginal cost.
In two sectors this is very marked.…

Last week I spent a very stimulating 2 days at the 8th Irish Earth Observation symposium (IEOS2014). I was impressed at the organisation and strength of the EO community over there. Tim McCarthy had done a great job to bring together around 120 experts from academia, research institutes and agencies, public users and, with the aid of Barry Fennel, from industry. I was told that it was by far the largest symposium which had been held.…

The initial statistics of the first phase 2 SME cal https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/news/sme-instrument-580-proposals-received-phase-2l have just been announced (thanks to Steve Bradley via LinkedI https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Initial-statistical-results-first-cutoff-4270510.S.5927363343491821568?trk=groups_items_see_more-0-b-ttln for the alert)..These show a total of 580 validated proposals were received of which 7 address the space theme.…

It is almost 4 months since I last posted - apologies for the long wait!
Yesterday, I was at the Imagine 2014 conference organised by Eurogi. This year is their 20th anniversary and for us it is 25 years since EARSC was formed. Over lunch, Eurogi had invited EARSC and 3 other organisations all celebrating an anniversary this year to make a short speech at their jubilee celebration. It was a simple but nice occasion.…

Following the Sentinel-1A launch on 3 April, the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) was successfully completed on 6 April. The orbital maneuvers to raise the satellite altitude and reach the reference orbit from the low injection orbit by the Soyuz launcher (-7.8 km) were completed on August 7.
A joint European Commission-ESA press event was organised on 8 May in Brussels on “Sentinel-1A first images and demonstration of applications”,…

(7 July 2014) Ocean waves, the hot sun, sea breezes -- the right combination makes a great day at the beach.
A different combination makes a killer hurricane. The complex interactions of the ocean and the air above it that can create such different outcomes are not yet fully known. Scientists would especially like to understand the role that the daily heat of the sun plays in creating winds.
In a few months,…

The CEOI-ST has recently held a round-table consultation, bringing together industry representatives from the Remote Sensing, GIS and UAV sectors to discuss and provide input on market trends, challenges and opportunities that will inform CEOI-ST’s strategy for the next generation of earth observation / remote sensing instruments.
The report from the Workshop has been published and a summary is available on CEOI-ST website - http://bit.ly/ceoiuav https://www.linkedin.com/redirect?…

It is announced today http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-department-of-commerce-relaxes-resolution-restrictions-digitalglobe-extends-lead-in-image-quality-2014-06-11?reflink=MW_news_stmp that DigitalGlobe has been granted permission to sell its highest resolution imagery on the market. This means that 30x40cm imagery will be available immediately and after the launch of WorldView3 this will increase to 25cm. This comes after news last night that Google will acquire Skybox for $500m.…

(May 20, 2014) Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY) announced today that its subsidiary, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc. (TBE), in Huntsville, Ala., and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) formalized their commercial space imaging partnership to use the International Space Station (ISS) for Earth observation with the signing of an Implementation Agreement at the ILA Berlin Air Show.
Under the agreement, DLR will build the DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS),…

SAN FRANCISCO — Draper Laboratory, Dynetics and Harris Corp. are joining forces with startup OmniEarth LLC to build, launch and operate a constellation of 18 small satellites to provide global, high-resolution Earth imagery on a daily basis. The team is seeking additional partners, investors and customers for the business venture, which is expected to carry a price tag of roughly $250 million, said Lars Dyrud, OmniEarth president and chief executive.…

Enhanced capabilities, including very high resolution and superspectral bands, will be the new benchmark for commercial earth observation
Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2014 – Following its commitment to provide continuity to the existing RapidEye constellation, today BlackBridge has released the details of the RapidEye+ constellation concept at its ENABLE 2014 Partner Conference.…

(12 May 2014) Dauria Aerospace and Elecnor Deimos have announced a joint partnership to develop Deimos Perseus, the first satellite constellation to provide frequent imaging of the entire Earth.
These satellites will carry high quality multispectral sensors that provide for automated identification of ground features such as crop types, their vigor, and stage in the growing cycle.…

Yesterday, we attended the press conference where the European Commission’s and the European Space Agency’s representatives proudly introduced the first images acquired by the radar instrument, providing the possibility of a day and night, all-weather, frequently revised world coverage. As a newcomer to the EO sector I found the imagery very impressive and the images shown gave just a glimpse of the 1.8 terabytes per day that will be collected by Sentinel 1.…